Nighttime dining during summer at Columbia Restaurant on St. Armands Circle in Sarasota is an indoor/outdoor vibe, with Spanish and Cuban flavors and excellent people watching. Reservations: ColumbiaRestaurant.com 📸: @travelwithtr | Columbia Restaurant

Take time to pour the cafe con leche. The Columbia’s coffee flavor comes from a century-old family roasting recipe. Roasted now by fourth-generation owners of Naviera Coffee in Tampa, each sip is like time travel. You can also order bags of beans and ground coffee online at ColumbiaRestaurant.com! | Columbia Restaurant

On this date in 2009, Columbia Cafe on Water Street opened at the Tampa Bay History Center. The cafe fulfilled a promise to third generation patriarch Cesar Gonzmart, who asked his family to open a Columbia restaurant there Tampa ever built a history museum. It’s perfect to stop by before or after your downtown plans, or even before a Lightning game at Benchmark International. Here you’ll find the classic flavors of the iconic Columbia, in a calm, relaxed atmosphere with a view of the water. The

Columbia Restaurant Group's reopenings begin in Sarasota, today at Cha Cha Coconuts and then on Monday at the Columbia Restaurant, both in St. Armands Circle. Cha Cha's is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Reservations are now being taken at ColumbiaRestaurant.com at all of the Columbia locations. Ulele reservations can be made at Ulele.com. The schedule for reopenings: * Wednesday, May 20 — Ulele in Tampa * Wednesday, May 20 — Columbia Café at the Tampa Bay History Center * Thursday, May 21 —

Columbia has a rich history of servers entertaining their customers, including Joe Roman, the Hall of Famer known as “The Singing Waiter” who serenaded tables (and did magic tricks) for more than five decades. “Anybody at the table could ask him to sing this or that and he would just break out and sing,” former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco told the Tampa Bay Times in 2012 when Mr. Roman passed away at age 84. “He had that kind of personality. He was part of what the Columbia was all about.” In that tr